CAMPAIGNERS say plans for a waste incinerator are 'still live' despite noises from the company that it has reached the end of the line.

CAMPAIGNERS say plans for a waste incinerator are 'still live' despite noises from the company that it has reached the end of the line.

People from both sides of the England-Wales border were concerned about the proposed energy from the waste furnace at Wrexham because of fears it could release toxic emissions.

So there was an apparent cause for celebration when waste consortium HLC announced it was withdrawing the original scheme and the public inquiry, due to start this week, was cancelled.

The firm submitted a fresh application to Wrexham Council for a thermal treatment plant - using pyrolosis technology - acknowledged to be more environmentally friendly.

However, inquiries have revealed the original scheme is not yet dead and buried.

Deborah Tayler of the Dee Borders Waste Action Group (DBWAG) said HLC had asked the Welsh Assembly to withdraw the plans on condition thermal treatment technology was included in a revised version of the application and the new version was 'called in' by the Welsh environment minister. These terms have not yet been agreed.

She said: 'The incineration aspect of the application is therefore still 'live' at the moment and may remain so - for example if the Welsh Assembly do not call in the pyrolosis application. At the present time both versions of the application are therefore 'live'.'

Mrs Tayler, of Rossett, is worried that if the Welsh Assembly does not 'call in' the application then Wrexham Council might ask for a condition to be lifted which would allow the local authority to pass the scheme off its own back.

Caroline Munro, chairwoman of DBWAG, understands the gasif ication and pyrolysis technology incorporated in the latest planning application is kinder to the environment. But she said the project was still motivated by an incentive to burn rather than attempt to get recycling rates up to 70 or 80% as they were in New Zealand.

'It's a marginal improvement but it's still burning. It's just an improved version,' said Mrs Munro who lives in Tilston.

DBWAG had worked with the Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales and broad based community organisation TCC to raise funds for experts to give evidence at the public inquiry.

The budget is still available to put foward a similar case if the public inquiry is revived in relation to the original scheme or the proposed thermal treatment plant.

Steve Burnett, project manager for HLC Wrexham Ltd, was unequivocal in stating that the original incineration scheme was 'dead in the water' and discussions were taking place with Wrexham Council about the new application.

He said: 'We are in the middle of providing information and holding a dialogue. We hope they will be accepting of it.'